PARSIPPANY, N.J. — With a focus on driving more corporate business to its hotels, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts today announced the expansion of Wyndham Direct, a booking, billing, and business solution. The service, formerly unique to its La Quinta by Wyndham brand, is now immediately available at Super 8 by Wyndham and Days Inn by Wyndham hotels in the United States, with plans to expand to additional brands later this year.
Wyndham Direct is designed to help drive corporate bookings to hotels and simplify travel management for companies and their travelers. Using integrated virtual credit card technology from Corporate Spending Innovations (CSI), Wyndham Direct enables booking and billing to support hotels as they work to attract small and medium-sized corporate business, grow market share, and drive lower-cost reservations. By expanding across the Wyndham’s three largest brands, the program now offers clients access to nearly 3,900 hotels across the economy through upper-midscale segments.
“Wyndham is leaving no stone unturned when it comes to helping our hotels drive more direct bookings, save time, and get paid faster,” said Carol Lynch, senior vice president of global sales for Wyndham. “Wyndham Direct is a comprehensive solution for our hotels that not only eases the strain on hotel teams, but also makes the client’s experience easier and helps translate into revenues for our franchisees.”
“CSI is excited to partner with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts to help power the Wyndham Direct program and we look forward to providing an innovative, streamlined solution for Wyndham clients,” said Juliann Pless, senior vice president, travel payment solutions at CSI.
Wyndham Direct offers small- and mid-sized companies a streamlined travel program alternative. It allows company travelers to make reservations directly through central channels using virtual credit card technology charged at check-out with no credit card authorization needed. Companies receive a single monthly bill and have the ability to manage travel spend within the Wyndham Direct customer portal, which includes flexible custom reporting features.
Hotel owners also benefit from the program by getting paid more quickly. Guest folio data is automatically sent to clients, eliminating the need to print and send invoices or spend time on collections. Additionally, Wyndham Direct includes reporting and data collection to streamline reconciliation processes, simplify and accelerate the payment process for hotel bookings, and help minimize disruptions during the check-in process.
Wyndham Direct aims to drive additional business from weekday road warriors across diverse industry segments such as oil and gas, construction, merchandising, transportation, and more. In addition, Wyndham’s sales team continues to work one-on-one to attract relevant business, including relief and recovery business, targeting those likely to drive room nights to upper-midscale, midscale, and economy hotels.
Wyndham Direct is part of the company’s efforts to drive business to franchisees and capture additional travel demand. The program debuted at La Quinta by Wyndham hotels across the United States in March. Wyndham continues to expand the program to new brands, increasing its accessibility and footprint to economy hotels as the company courts more diverse industries. The company plans to roll out the program to all of its brands and hotels in the United States on the SynXisV3 PMS throughout 2020, with plans to further expand internationally in the future.
